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Minn. man faces 18 federal weapons charges

WILLMAR, Minn. — Federal weapons charges have been filed against a Willmar man who had been set to face a jury trial on similar charges later this month in Kandiyohi County.

Chad Monson, 46, made an initial appearance Tuesday afternoon, June 12, in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on 18 federal charges, including possession of machine guns, possession of machine guns with obliterated serial numbers, possession of unregistered destructive devices described as pipe bombs and possession of unregistered silencers.

The weapons were allegedly seized during searches of Monson's property last winter.

Monson, who had been held in the Kandiyohi County Jail on $500,000 bail until Tuesday morning, is now being held in federal prison.

He's scheduled to make another appearance at 12:30 p.m. Friday for a detention hearing, according to Monson's attorney, Dan Mohs.

Monson also faces a total of 24 weapons and drug-related charges filed in Kandiyohi County that stem from a search Jan. 30 at his rural residential property and a search Feb. 21 of his business property.

Along with the weapons, methamphetamine was also seized as part of the search and resulted in felony and petty misdemeanor drug charges.

A jury trial had been set to begin June 25 at the Kandiyohi County Courthouse in Willmar.

But, according to Mohs, the jury trial in Kandiyohi County is on hold as the case shifts to the federal level.

He said it's likely the federal government will handle the weapons charges and the drug charges will be handled in Kandiyohi County.

Given the items seized during the searches and that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was involved, Mohs said he wasn't surprised by the federal charges.

According to the federal indictment, Monson is charged with knowingly possessing 10 machine guns, two machine guns that had serial numbers obliterated and three pipe bombs and three silencers that were not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Mohs said it's possible additional charges, or an additional list of weapons, could be added to the federal indictment.